HOLLYWOOD -- Hundreds of cowboys and Indians, and some plain folk too, got together on Saturday for some good ol` horsing around. While there was plenty of food and crafts, the rodeo was the main attraction at the 18th annual Seminole Tribal Fair as people, dressed in full cowboy or Indian gear, whooped and hollered as steers were wrestled to the ground. Still, it`s the cultural events that are most important to Henry Gopher, a Seminole who serves as the fair committee chairman. "It`s an education," Gopher said.

A Pembroke Pines-based Indian cultural group is bringing new shows to Miramar and Fort Lauderdale in 2011. The nonprofit Association of Performing Arts of India, founded in 1998, features a variety of cultural outreach, educational programs and several yearly performances throughout South Florida. Its first performance for 2011 will be "Rhythms of Rajasthan" from 7 to 9 p.m. Jan. 15 at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts' Amaturo Theater, 201 SW Fifth Ave. in Fort Lauderdale.

Kevin Locke, one of the foremost flute players in the Indian culture, will give a public performance at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday in Lake Worth. Locke lives on the Standing Rock Indian reservation in South Dakota and is noted for his flute playing and hoop dancing. He will be in South Florida for the Miccosukee Indian Fair from Monday through Sunday. His performance on Wednesday will be at "All My Relations," a store that sells Indian items at 2517 N. Dixie Highway. For more information on that appearance, call 793-6445.

Clad in pink and blue, Vedha Dave dances in precise steps to the rhythmic Indian music, her hands sculpting the symbolic gestures known as mudras. All the while, a delighted smile never leaves her face. "I love dancing, and my mom loves dancing, too," the 6-year-old says after rehearsal for a celebration of Divali, the Hindu festival of lights. Her mother, Dipali Dave, smiles with pride for her daughter, who is learning Indian heritage as she dances. "All dances flow from the goddess," says Dave, helping her daughter prepare for the festival, to be held at Cooper City High School.

The Seminoles visited students on Wednesday at Verde Elementary School west of Boca Raton. Not the top-ranked Florida State University Seminole football team. But the descendants of Seminole Indian tribes, who were the early settlers of Florida. The visitors informed and entertained students with Indian culture. The hour-long presentation, was highlighted by a visit from Al, a 2 1/2-year- old alligator, and Felix, an 11-month-old panther. Thomas Storm, a Seminole Indian, taught the excited students how to say several Indian words.

Rosebud Yellow Robe Frantz, a great-grandniece of Chief Sitting Bull who devoted her life to making American Indian culture available to other Americans, died of cancer on Monday at Calvary Hospital in the Bronx, N.Y. She was 85, and had lived in Forest Hills, N.Y., and Douglaston, N.Y., since 1928. As director of the Indian Village at Jones Beach State Park on Long Island from 1930 to 1950, Rosebud, as she preferred to be called, enthralled legions of visitors with information about and stories from Indian culture.

When people hear Nissim Reuben is a Jew from India, they often ask if he changed religions. He didn't - and he's proud of his multiple heritage. "I'm proud to have been born in India, with relatives in Israel," said Reuben, an officer of the American Jewish Committee, who will speak on the topic today at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton The FAU meeting, starting at 3 p.m., will celebrate the 60th anniversaries of both countries: India this...

For Shailesh Shah, the best part of Sunday's celebration of India's independence was seeing the children so involved. "There are so many youth groups showing Indian culture," said Shah, of Palm Beach Gardens, as he scanned the Omni Auditorium on Broward Community College's north campus. "We want our youth to learn Indian culture and Western culture and get the best of both." At least 2,000 people showed up to celebrate India's 59th year of independence, its culture and its history. Dozens of Indian groups set up booths with information on India's heritage, business and religions.

It was a side of Joe Robbie few outside his squabbling family knew. The man who built a reputation in the football world as a gruff, hardened, stingy competitor was also a generous friend of the American Indian. According to court documents in the estate suit that was settled this week, Robbie pledged $50,000 in 1987 to the Buffalo Bill Historical Association. The association has been sustaining Indian culture for 75 years. "Joe was very enamored of Indian traditions and especially the Plains Indians," said Peter Hassrich, director of the association in Cody, Wyo. "He would come through our museum here once or twice a year, and he was very friendly, cordial and generous.

Visitors will be able to see, taste, hear and touch Indian culture during the 10th annual Festival of India in Coconut Creek. The all-day event, hosted by the South Florida chapter of the Association of Indians in America, takes place today at Broward Community College's North Campus. "It's all going to be very authentic," said the chapter's president, Lakshmi Subrahmanian. "You'll be transported into a whole different world." With India's coastal communities still reeling from the tsunami that hit the region in December, the organization will accept donations for victims during the event, Subrahmanian said.

Recently, while camping with my younger cousin, we started talking about some of the memorable YouTube videos we had seen. (Yes, we're geeks.) It soon dawned on him that we were having a "YouTube party" on a remote, electronics-free camp site of all places. "What's a YouTube party?" I asked. It's when you share links to YouTube videos, he said. He and his friends go back and forth trying to outdo each other by showing obscure videos. It happens spontaneously and pretty regularly, especially in college.

A Pembroke Pines-based group is working to increase awareness of Indian culture and music in Broward County. Since 1998, the Association of Performing Arts of India has organized concerts, dance classes and educational programs for schools. The association was created with a simple goal in mind, said Executive Director Bharti Chokshi. "We wanted to get Indian music out to the people, and no organization was doing that full-time," she said. One element of the group's work is to find local artists and have them visit schools and libraries to demonstrate music and dance.

India: A Cultural Journey. Putumayo World Culture. $29.95. Accompanying music CD, sold separately: $15.99. India's emergence as an economic power, coupled with the popularity of the movie Slumdog Millionaire, has made this ancient country, with its rich cultural and religious heritage, a renewed subject of American curiosity. Putumayo, a company best known for world music, offers a coffee-table book that nicely introduces a broad view of the country through excellent photographs by veteran travel shooters Laurence Mouton and Sergio Ramazzotti.

When people hear Nissim Reuben is a Jew from India, they often ask if he changed religions. He didn't - and he's proud of his multiple heritage. "I'm proud to have been born in India, with relatives in Israel," said Reuben, an officer of the American Jewish Committee, who will speak on the topic today at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton The FAU meeting, starting at 3 p.m., will celebrate the 60th anniversaries of both countries: India this...

Culture Corner is the place to find the things that remind you of your homeland. Every week, we highlight items -- such as traditional dishes and ingredients, books and movies, and fashion apparel and accessories -- that are of cultural significance to our many nationalities in South Florida and are available locally. What: Bindi The bindi, an ornamental mark worn on the forehead between the two eyebrows, is of great religious and cultural significance to Indian women. It suggests the spiritual third eye and traditionally was worn only by married women in some parts of India.

Three generations with roots in India celebrated that country's 59th year of independence Sunday with music, performances and food. Children danced on a large stage to traditional Indian music and performed plays from Indian literature at the Omni Auditorium on Broward Community College's north campus. At least 2,000 people showed up as dozens of Indian groups staffed booths with information on India's heritage, business and religions. "This is one of the few events all Indians celebrate, regardless of religion or background," said Lakshmi Subrahmanian, past president of the Association of Indians in America's South Florida chapter.

When Anil Kumar was a child in Delhi, India, Independence Day was a time for celebration. "As a child, I remember going with my parents and listening to the public address. There were parades and other festivities," said Kumar, who has lived in Boca Raton since 1986. "It was a great occasion." To continue the tradition on Sunday, Kumar and several members of the South Florida Association of Indians in America met to celebrate India`s freedom from British rule 46 years ago on Aug. 15, 1947.

On those rare occasions when a serious music fan gets to meet one of his heroes, the encounter is usually a handshake in front of a departing tour bus or a few words at an autograph table. Fort Lauderdale musician and writer Peter Lavezzoli did a little better than this. He traveled 8,400 miles for an audience with one of the world's most revered musicians, Indian sitar player Ravi Shankar. And yes, he was invited. In January he sat down in Shankar's New Delhi home. Their two-hour conversation became one of the most important that Lavezzoli would have while researching his new book: The Dawn of Indian Music in the West: Bhairavi (Continuum)